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Busy Philipps has a memoir coming out in a few days, but already excerpts appear to be floating about the place.

One such edit involves an on-set recollection from her time on Freaks and Geeks – which ran from 1999-2000 – alongside James Franco.

The two played on/off lovers, and Busy has recalled a moment in which she alleged James assaulted her after being caught ‘off guard’ during a take.

Playing Kim Kelly, The New York Post has reported her next line was: ‘Dammit Daniel, do SOMETHING’, to be delivered while hitting his chest.

Freaks and Geeks ran from 1999-2000 (Picture: Getty Images)

She allegedly wrote in This Will Only Hurt A Little: ‘He grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, “DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!” And he threw me to the ground. Flat on my back. Wind knocked out of me.’

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Afterwards, she said she ‘sobbed’ in co-star Linda Cardellini’s trailer.

Busy also claimed he was a ‘fucking bully’ while the two worked together, James playing Daniel Desario, but that he later apologised.

Still, Busy said that he was ‘never punished’ for his actions: ‘James was full of bad behaviour, so why would this be treated any differently.’

It’s not the first time Busy has detailed the incident, recalling the moment during a reunion with the cast at PaleyFest in 2011.

She explained that unbeknownst to her and the director, James – who was denied allegations of inappropriate behaviour after previously being accused by five women – had a discussion with someone about his character’s backstory with an abusive father, not wanting any physicality between Daniel and Kim – so ‘he freaked out’ when she hit his chest in the take.

Then, in 2016 on Watch What Happens Live she told Andy Cohen the two were mates now, but it was far from rosy when they worked together, describing the moment then as well.

‘He felt like he wanted his character to be one way. He had had a discussion with the producers that he came from an abused family or something, and so he didn’t want his girlfriend — I played his girlfriend — to ever physically hit him,’ she said. ‘I never knew this conversation existed, and in an improv, I smacked him on the thing, and he was like, “Don’t ever touch me,” and grabbed me and shoved me to the ground.

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‘It was an overreaction by a 19-year-old dude. And it was weird and people’s agents had to be called and he had to apologize to me.’

She added they has spoken about it afterwards and it was nothing but water under the bridge.

She’d added: ‘We’re friends now and we really like each other now as adults,’ she said. ‘But as kids we did not get along.’

Metro.co.uk contacted James’ reps for comment.

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